Moto Tunnel, a 129-year-old British-era archaeological structure ‘revived’ by Pakistan

Pakistan’s Ministry of Climate Change opened the 129-year-old Moto Tunnel for tourists after its revival at the Ayubia National Park in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. A British-era architectural marvel, the tunnel since decades was lying closed, buried under the heaps of trash and filth. It has been ‘restored to its original glory from trash to treasure,’

What is Moto Tunnel?

The 250-feet long, 6-feet high and 4-feet wide tunnel carved out of stones and clay, is part of the longer ‘nature pipeline walk’ (a walk through the forests) in the Ayubia National Park of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan. Located close to Ayubia is Murree, a small and famous hill town since British era in Galyat region (extending on both sides of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab provincial border of Pakistan). The Galyat region is known among tourists for its hill towns and nature walk tracks through the forests. The tunnel has a stone mark atop with ‘1891’ carved on it, indicating the year it was built by the British.

How has the tunnel been restored?

Pakistan government has spent nearly Rs 20 lakh to ‘revive’ the ‘heritage architectural piece’ and ‘has not tampered with its original structure’ so that tourists and nature & heritage explorers can ‘have a walk through history’. “The tunnel’s original stone work has not been tampered with. Pak Govt. not used any new construction material. They just removed mounds of filth, cleaned the area, installed some tourist facilities such as benches, lights inside the tunnel, refurbished old stone work and opened it for tourists.